THERE aren’t many acts who can claim to have released a cover version of an ABBA classic and had a bigger hit with it.

But Blancmange fall firmly into that category, when their take on The Day Before You Came – voted ABBA fans’ third favourite song from the Fab Swedish foursome in a national poll – became a big hit for them just two years after the original release.

Blancmange are back after a near 30-year hiatus, and are at he O2 Academy in Newcastle on Wednesday.

At least one half of them are ... Stephen Luscombe cannot appear due to illness, although Tyneside’s very own Graham Henderson will be taking up that mantle.

Neil Arthur, however, will most certainly be there to kick off the group’s tour, and The Day Before You Came will most certainly be on the setlist.

I ask Neil why cover an ABBA song in the first place? “We all agreed it was sensational,” he says of the original.

“We deliberately chose their least successful one, not because of it not being successful but because of the lyrical content.

“We liked the idea of me singing this lyric which was written by a man for a woman to sing. We liked turning it on its head.

“We got a beautiful letter from ABBA saying how much they liked it. In fact they liked it enough for them to give us the right to use the video content of their original in ours too. In those days things like that just didn’t happen.” Happy memories for Neil ... as are his memories of his days in Newcastle during Blancmange’s hit-making period.

In the early 80s, the act had hits like Living On The Ceiling, Waves, Blind Vision and Don’t Tell Me.

Currently their influence can be heard in everything from Hot Chip to Metronomy. Alongside the Human League, Magazine, Soft Cell, Gary Numan, Heaven 17 and OMD – Blancmange are now recognised as true Electro-Pop trail blazing pioneers. “We did what for us was a very memorable The Tube on New Year’s Eve in Newcastle,” recalls Neil.

“I remember saying to my mum, before one of the live songs, I’ll be home soon. Stephen flew back to London and I got a cab with my better half outside The Tube and the record company paid for it. It took me all the way down the M62 and back up the other side to Lancashire as it was snowing everywhere and we didn’t want to risk going over the top.

“I couldn’t believe it. I’d never had such extravagance than with this cab journey. It was £94 and we rounded it up to £100. It wasn’t always like that though!

“We were on tour of Depeche Mode up there and Japan and we played at The Mayfair. I remember the scampi and chips there.”

Stephen won’t be joining Neil on tour. On their official website he has posted: “As reported last year I was unable to come on the various tour/dates due to an abdominal aortic aneurysm: it wouldn’t have been too clever to ignore that, and not fair on the boys to have that at the back of their minds.”

Neil adds: “I’m not trying to relive something we did years ago, it’s not possible and I don’t want to even attempt to do it, but I will savour every moment of this on stage.”